Well, we just finished our first real week of the program. So far, we've mainly had class every day from 1:00 - 4:30, though this upcoming week I think we'll be starting cultural lectures and activities. We've also been doing more exploring, getting to know each other better, and finally settling into a schedule.
Classes have been busy, but manageable--we generally have a daily quiz and about an hour or so of homework a night. We have essay periods on Thursdays, listening and speaking periods on Mondays and Wednesdays, and general vocabulary and grammar periods the remainder of the time. It's immersive and discussion-heavy, which is both very rewarding and very difficult, so I think we've all learned a lot even in just the first week.
Definitely the highlight of these week was a group field trip to the other SISU campus in Songjiang, about an hourlong drive away from the Hongkou campus we're staying at. The Songjiang campus is much newer and focuses mainly on foreign language, communication, journalism, and business studies. Compared to Hongkou, Songjiang is also much more remote--the Hongkou campus is much closer to many of the more popular Shanghai areas and landmarks, so it's a little more convenient as a foreign student.
Two students from the Songjiang campus showed us around part of the French concession areas of Shanghai, which have some big tourist spots with lots of food and shopping. It was nice to see more of the city, especially since we aren't really sure of all the nearby must-see areas, and we'll definitely go back at some point to check it out more thoroughly.
Anyways, I guess those are all the big highlights from this week--it looks like things are going to start picking up next week, and we have a weekend field trip to Nanjing coming up so we'll definitely be busy. Also, I'm awful at taking pictures so I apologize for how lacking my photos are both in quantity and quality. I realize I don't really have any good pictures for this post, so here's a picture of a noodle bowl I got at the school cafeteria, which is surprisingly good. And uh, yeah, see you next week!